The Murder Road by Stephen Booth (2015) starts with a mysterious and bloody disappearance of a lorry driver in Derbyshire; a case for DI Ben Cooper, into which is weird pal DS Diane Fry is bound to intrude.

The author paints a lengthy word picture of New Mills some 70 pages into the PB edition; and shoots himself in the foot. Having walked through the town thousands of times over two decades, I can confirm that there's a huge sweet factory there, but I have never, ever been assaulted by a sickly, overpowering smell from it. Oh, dear? What else has he got wrong?

As for the plot, there's a murder and a suicide, and everything goes back to misconceptions from an RTA 8 years before, DI Cooper reckons.

This 1946 Readers' Union collection contains 3 novels from the early days, before Maigret and the gang became established in Paris. It contains translations of Le Locataire (1934), Un Crime en Holland (1931) and Au Rendez-Vous des Terre Nuevas (1931).
In all of them, Inspector Maigret runs into uncommunicative people, and in the middle novel, his problems are compounded by investigating in a country where he doesn't speak the language. The last one, in which he takes Madame Maigret on holiday whilst he investigates the death of a trawler captain, is probably the best of them.

Arkady Renko is the cynical but brilliant Chief Investigator in the Brezhnev era Moscow police.In this debut outing he is assigned a triple homicide,against his will,as the case is deemed to be non-political and therefore of no interest to the KGB.

Smuggling and attempted defections are major elements of a tangled plot,no-one can be be trusted and it soon becomes evident that there is more to the case than first thought.As Renko peels away layer after layer of deception he has to tread carefully as he encounters people in positions of power with secrets they want to stay hidden.

The trail continues to New York and an ending that is a little too drawn out but overall this is a very enjoyable read.8.5/10

Arkady Renko is the cynical but brilliant Chief Investigator in the Brezhnev era Moscow police.In this debut outing he is assigned a triple homicide,against his will,as the case is deemed to be non-political and therefore of no interest to the KGB.

Smuggling and attempted defections are major elements of a tangled plot,no-one can be be trusted and it soon becomes evident that there is more to the case than first thought.As Renko peels away layer after layer of deception he has to tread carefully as he encounters people in positions of power with secrets they want to stay hidden.

The trail continues to New York and an ending that is a little too drawn out but overall this is a very enjoyable read.8.5/10

Crumbs! Is this book really 36 years old?!? It made a really big splash when it came out and I was able to go directly to the right one of over 20 bookcases to find that I still have a paperback of it. It looks positively tiny next to chunky HBs of Polar Star and Rose, also by Mr. Cruz O'Missile.

A tale of murder, misguided faith and many, dead bodies. Well written story set in the dead end towns of West Virginia and Southern Ohio in the post war - pre Vietnam years, about very bad people (and not so bad people) doing very bad things

An amazing book from the actual writings of the early church in the first 200 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus.. even if you have no belief this book will be fascinating.. the trials of the early persecuted church.. the eyewitness accounts and the teachings and understandings of the writings of the Torah and what we now know as the New Testament..

All I Did Was Shoot My Man by Walter Mosley (2012)
This is a lengthy tale of robbery, guilt about a frame up, and murder and mayhem as Leonid McGill, the private eye responsible for the frame-up, gets his victim out of gaol and starts to unravel the whole puzzle surrounding a much bigger robbery than anyone suspected. He's a dysfunctional guy with a ditto family and ditto relationship with the cops and authority figures. At the end, as in real life, it all tends to fizzle out instead of coming to a nice, neat conclusion.

I forget who is who after turning the page So many names and places. I think I should concentrate on individual events/empires, rather than go for books that cover vast timelines.

I am interested in Persia but turns out not the details of ancient poetry!.

I have started Salem's Lot by Stephen King and that seems to be more agreeable with my headaches post work.

The Silk Roads A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan

I found the most interesting part of this book to be the chapters focused on the Middle East during the 20th century and the obvious relevance in todays' world.Though I was aware of many of the later events as a child growing up the author did a good job of explaining the motivations leading up to these events and the subsequent fallout.

Much like yourself I am now looking for something to read that covers a shorter time line,specifically based in the Middle-East.

Chasing the Scream The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs by Johann Hari

Could not put this down.Covers the origin of the so-call War on Drugs and the lack of progress made down the years.Each chapter has it's own story,some reinforce the futility of conventional efforts others give fascinating alternative examples of how different societies manage rather than attack the problem.

It has made me look at the whole thing in a completely different light,in some ways it has turned my thinking around 180 degrees.